by Barbara Oliver

It was late. He had arrived early that morning, before anyone else. It was just a spot in the road, indistinguishable from any other spot. But soon it was crowded with men.

The young ones were snatched up first. Off to the vineyards they went, secure in their strength and good fortune. They would earn their wages that day, for the work was difficult and the sun was already hot.

One by one, they were carted off, until there were only a few left: the older ones, the weaker ones. He stood among them, his hopes fading with the day. He knew he should just go home. But how could he face his family? How could he go home without money for food?

Five o'clock. Feeling defeated, he started toward home when the landowner returned. He approached the few stragglers. "Why have you been standing here idle all day long?" "Because no one hired us." "You too go into the vineyard." He ran to the wagon and climbed in with the rest.

Barely an hour later, the landowner ordered them to line up for their pay, the last man first. He took his place at the front of the line. His hand trembled as he waited for the few cents he would receive. He tried not to feel disappointed. Would it be enough to pay for a sparse evening meal?

Amazed he watched as the landowner placed a whole denarius in his hand. He stood transfixed until the man behind pushed him out of the way. Tears filled his eyes. This couldn't be! His thoughts were echoed aloud by an angry voice.

"What is going on here?" shouted one of the hired men. "These last men have worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden and the scorching heat of the day." The landowner replied, "Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for a denarius? ... is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with what is my own? Or is your eye envious because I am generous?" (Read Matthew 20:1-16).

It was late. He knew he should have done this before time had made an old man out of him. His shoulders were stooped with age and the burdens of a life faced alone. What good was he to God now? How could he be forgiven at this late date?

He stepped into the aisle.

He could feel their eyes on him. How could these people forgive him? They knew him! They were the ones he had ridiculed. They were the ones he had called hypocrites! He felt as if he would drown in guilt and shame before he ever reached the water.

Fear gripped him. No! He would not let pride keep him from obeying. He wanted to be forgiven. He wanted to turn his life around, with God's help. He couldn't face the short number of days ahead without a Savior. He had wasted too many years on earth. He would not waste his eternity.

At the water's edge, his whole life flashed before him. He confessed Jesus, with tears, as he was lowered into that grave of water. He arose. He turned to face his new family and saw their smiles, their tears of joy. What a generous God, to accept him at the eleventh hour!

His thoughts were echoed aloud by the preacher's voice, "Now is the acceptable time, behold, now is the day of salvation" (2 Corinthians 6:2).

by J. Randal Matheny

People who tell us we can't all understand the Bible alike often have an agenda to push or a doctrine to promote. They like to create a chasm between the original readers and us today. We are so far removed from that original setting and situation, they say, that we can't be totally sure that what is being taught therein is applicable today. By doing so, they purport to muddy the waters and cast doubt on the ability to comprehend and apply what the Scriptures say.

Jesus himself shows that no such chasm exists. Much time had elapsed between the day God appeared to Moses in a burning bush and 30 A.D. or so, when the Sadducees plied our Lord with a question about the resurrection. In spite of a time span of more than 1,500 years, Jesus cites a phrase from Exodus 3 to demonstrate the existence of life after death and the resurrection.

Before doing so, he says, "And as for the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was said to you by God, ..." (Matthew 22:31, NRSV).

Jesus affirmed that in the Exodus passage, God was talking to the Sadducees. "Said to you by God." They should have read it and understood that it taught the resurrection of the dead. They were therefore culpable of teaching there was no resurrection. It mattered not at all that so much time has passed, nor that they were not present to understand fully what was taking place on that lonely mountainside.

Yes, the truth was there to be read and understood. But they had been influenced by philosophies and teachings of men. So they read over that verse and kept right on going, happy in their self-imposed ignorance.

Jesus told them, however, that God was talking to them through that passage. God was communicating important truths in something he had said more than 1,500 years earlier. Only their political and social agenda kept them from admitting it.

Be sure that when people today cast aspersions on the ability to understand the message of the Bible and come to a right conclusion about what it teaches, Jesus doesn't share their opinion.

We can know what God is saying to us about the nature of salvation, the proper human response to the gospel, the right way to worship the Lord, how to conduct ourselves in this evil world. We can know and we can fulfill God's detailed will for our lives.

Don't let anybody tell you otherwise.

For God's talking to us today. Will we hear, understand, and obey?

by Phil Sanders

Jesus walked more than 75 miles from Nazareth to the Jordan River, so that he could "fulfill all righteousness" (Matthew 3:13-17). If Jesus believed baptism to be that important, certainly we should.

Jesus told Nicodemus, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God" (John 3:5). Every early Christian understood this to refer to baptism. If Jesus demanded baptism to enter the kingdom of God, how can we excuse ourselves or anyone else from what Jesus requires?

At the beginning of the church in the very first sermon, Peter responded to convicted hearts who wanted to know what to do. He said, "Repent, and let each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit" (Acts 2:38). That day 3,000 people understood him and gladly responded; the Lord added them to His church (Acts 2:41,47).

When guilty, blind Saul of Tarsus learned that Jesus was Lord, he prayed and fasted for three days (Acts 9:9,11). He did not find salvation, however, until Ananias came to him and told him what he must do (Acts 9:6). Ananias said, "And now why do you delay? Arise, and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on His name" (Acts 22:16).

When the careless Romans began to take the grace of God for granted, Paul reminded them that they were not to live in sin any longer. He told them, "Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life" (Romans 6:3,4).

You should be baptized for the same reasons they were: to fulfill righteousness, to enter the kingdom, to have forgiveness of sins, to wash away sin, and to walk in newness of life. What a great God we have.

By Michael E. Brooks

"He who dwells in the secret place of the most high shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, 'He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in him I will trust'" (Psalm 91:1,2).

Last Sunday afternoon in Columbia, South Carolina, I attended the funeral of my father's younger brother, Paul Brooks. I was asked to read Psalm 91 during the service. About a week before his death a young nurse had come into his hospital room and quoted this psalm from memory, and Uncle Paul's family thought it was fitting for it to be read at the memorial service. He had frequently commented on the nurse's quoting of the Psalm, and was very impressed that "she knew the whole thing by heart." More importantly, he was greatly comforted by its simple assertion of the value of trusting God.

"God is my refuge and my fortress!" What a simple yet powerful statement. Every day we find more evidence of the evil and uncertainty of the world in which we live. Enemies abound. Natural disasters are commonplace. Disease, accident and crime kill thousands daily, and cripple many more. As James says, "what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away" (James 4:14). Where do we go to find safety? We must even ask the question, "can it be found?"

The Psalmist's answer is an emphatic "Yes!" There is security in trusting God. "Surely he shall deliver you" (Psalm 91:3). "A thousand may fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand, but it shall not come near you" (Psalm 91:7). These bold promises must be taken less than literally, of course. Faithful soldiers are killed in battle. Good Christians become ill, suffer and die. Faith in God does not prevent all accidents, illnesses or disasters. Yet it is still true that evil does not overcome those who trust in God. The New Testament expresses it in these terms:

"There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit…And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to his purpose…What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?…Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 8:1, 28, 31, 37-39).

Bad things do happen to good people. But almighty, all loving God, our Father, can preserve our eternal souls through those things, and can comfort and secure us in the midst of them. Trust in God. He is our refuge and our fortress.

by Tim Hall

"Am I a sinner? Well, yes, I am. I occasionally have impure thoughts; sometimes I let a bad word slip out of my mouth; and I have been known to creep over the speed limit now and then. Yes, I must confess that I am a sinner. But Jesus is willing to receive sinners like me."

It's true that Jesus is willing to receive sinners who repent and turn back to God. But is our understanding of "sinners" the same as Jesus had in mind? We should remind ourselves of what He really taught.

Sinners are the subject Jesus addressed in Luke 15. Through the parables of the lost sheep, the lost coin and the wayward son, Jesus made a powerful point: "I say to you that likewise there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance" (Luke 15:7, NKJV). We've often thrilled over the truth of that passage. To know that angels rejoice when a sinner like me repents -- that's really good news!

But who did Jesus have in mind when He spoke of penitent sinners? Look back to the beginning of the chapter: "Then all the tax collectors and the sinners drew near to Him to hear Him. And the Pharisees and scribes murmured, saying, 'This man receives sinners and eats with them'" (Luke 15:1,2). The people Jesus had in mind when He spoke of "sinners" in verses 7 and 10 were those whom polite company silently condemns as beyond hope. "Incorrigible!" we think. "God will forgive sinners like me, but those kind of people are beyond hope."

Who were these sinners of Luke 15? One class is mentioned: the tax collectors. Others were likely drunkards, prostitutes, thieves, hardened soldiers. Could people like these be reached by the gospel? Obviously they could, for they were coming in large numbers to Jesus. Instead of rejoicing over their change, though, the "good people" of Jesus' day -- people who would quickly admit they were sinners -- looked upon the scene with scorn.

Could we become like these scribes and Pharisees? Do we regard some people as "sinners like me", and others as "those people"? And because they are so steeped in sin, do we make little or no effort to reach them with the saving message of Jesus' gospel?

There are sinners all around: drug addicts, pornography merchants, convicted felons, etc. And then there are the other sinners: church-going people who tell white lies, who cheat on their income taxes, who "borrow" pencils from the office. Which group is worse? Whom did Jesus come to save?

The answer is clear: We're all sinners. The prostitute is a sinner like me. The thief is a sinner like me. The murderer is a sinner like me. I need the Savior's help as much as any of these. If I don't think so, then I may have already developed Pharisaical attitudes.

Who is the worst sinner of all time? Would the apostle Paul qualify for that title? He thought he would! "This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief" (1 Timothy 1:15). If a Christian like Paul realized his desperate need for a Savior, then I'd better try to see myself in that way, too.